The peak of the rainy season is quickly approaching.
When the summer rain comes, it is always unexpected. Suddenly, the rolling dark clouds come from far to near, completely covering the originally sunny sky in an instant.
At this time, the sky and clouds were very low, making the ants very uncomfortable, and then there would be strong wind and rain in an instant. The wind and rain combined to sweep across the ground, and lines of rain slanted to connect the sky and the land.
Ants always hate rain. Once it rains, not only will their search for food and resources be affected, but even the best-designed underground nests will be more or less threatened by flooding.
In "Dongyang City", the ants stayed quietly underground, and everyone was anxiously waiting for the downpour to end as soon as possible.
The ants who take turns on the upper level of the nest send messengers from time to time to report disaster and rescue situations to the protagonist.
Fortunately, there are drainage outlets on the fortress embankment on the ground, and the trenches are connected to nearby low-lying areas through flood discharge channels. The rainwater will not stay above "Dongyang City" for too long.
The upper level of the nest is now basically a space for a mealworm farm and a fly stable.
Flies are not afraid of the rain that occasionally seeps out of the soil and drips onto them. Flies living in the wild, once encountering such heavy rain, will reduce their activities in advance and look for shelter from the rain (so flies always go into people's houses when it rains).
Most of them will hide behind leaves, tree trunks and other places where the wind is exposed. But even so, wind and rain can still wet their bodies. Flies with poor health will be blown away by the strong wind, and many wet flies will have a hard time surviving.
But even in such bad weather, after the clouds clear and the rain stops, most flies shake off the water droplets on their bodies and let the warm sun dry their soaked wings, and then they can spread their wings and fly again.
What's more, there is only an occasional drop of water in the underground nest, and the temperature is far more comfortable than the wind-driven and rain-drenched ground. These flies are completely unafraid.
Mealworms are relatively more afraid of rain. After all, they are just the larvae of the yellow meal moth. They like a relatively warm and slightly humid environment. They like a room temperature of 25-32°C and a humidity of 60-75%, and they do not like food that is too rich in moisture.
But when rainwater seeped into the mealworm farm, the comfortable environment created by the hard-working worker ants changed.
The cold rain and the soil full of cold water caused the temperature in the nest to plummet, the air humidity was close to saturation, and the food was soaked by the rain.
Mealworms have a strong ability to tolerate drought, but they hate moisture. When the moisture content of the feed exceeds 18% or the air humidity exceeds 85%, mealworms will slow down their development and become susceptible to disease. So at this moment, the mealworms all gathered together, hugging each other tightly, hiding high on the slightly dry ground that had not yet been soaked by the rain, and endured the heavy rain.
Even so, after every heavy rain, a varying number of mealworms will become sick and die. Their end is to be dried and roasted to sterilize and remove moisture, and then crushed into feed for their companions. The ants themselves will not eat these sick livestock.
This kind of heavy rain came four times in a week, sometimes intermittently for a whole day, and even the occasional sunshine seemed so precious. Even on a sunny day, it seems like you can grab a handful of water droplets in the air. It is extremely humid and cold.
Continuous heavy rains caused heavy losses to "Dongyang City". Not only was it impossible to harvest new grains, but the original livestock and grain stocks also suffered a lot of losses.
The only good news is that the parasitic ants have not attacked again these days.
Perhaps the rain disaster in hilly areas is also severe, and the parasitic ants living at the bottom of the valley have to face raging flash floods.
Perhaps the enemies on the march were beaten to pieces by the heavy rain, and they could only flee back to their hometown in despair.
So taking advantage of the rare sunny moment, the protagonist rode Xiaoqing and rushed to the southern fortress, temporarily withdrawing the troops stationed here to "Dongyang City", leaving only a small team as a guard.
After all, the underground space of the southern fortress is relatively small, the terrain is not high, and the ability to resist disasters in such rain disasters is also weak. It is not a wise choice to expose one's main army to such a dangerous environment for a long time.
Gun, Lambowan, Lamborui and Lamboser led nineteen teams, taking advantage of the good weather, bypassing the large and small puddles along the way, and returned to Dongyang City without any danger. ”.
The only people responsible for guarding the southern fortress were Lambert and a small team directly under him. In the last breakout operation after the unfavorable battle with the parasitic ants, Rambotu performed well and had a stable personality. He gained the protagonist's trust and was given this important task this time.
After escorting the main force back to the nest smoothly, the weather was still bright. The protagonist wanted to ride Xiaoqing to the parasitic ant nest to investigate, but he was afraid that there would be heavy rain on the way, which would be very dangerous.
After all, the weather in this rainy season is like a child's face, changing at any time and making people unable to figure it out.
Fortunately, what ants are best at is predicting rain by sensing changes in air pressure. Although the protagonist has not mastered this skill, everyone else can.
This skill relies on keen antennae. Although ants live below the ground, they like to be dry by nature. When the humidity and air pressure in the air change before it rains, the ants can keenly feel it, and then the ants will take actions such as Prevent it by moving, stacking nests high and other methods.
This is also the origin of folklore that ants can predict the weather, and you should quickly collect your clothes when you see ants moving.
After asking the ants around him, the protagonist confirmed that there would be no rain in a short time, and boldly flew south. Anyway, it only takes ten minutes to go back and forth. The protagonist believes that he will not be so unlucky and encounter danger in such a short period of time.
Soon, the protagonist rode Xiaoqing and flew over the southern fortress. The fortress was quiet, with only a few ants basking in the sun on the ground and repairing the earth embankment damaged by rain.
The protagonist also saw Rambotu, who was guarding the earth embankment with two soldier ants, looking warily towards the south.
The trenches around the Southern Fortress have been blocked by silt, forming a swamp that is difficult to pass through. There are only a few drier places that can be passed through, which invisibly enhances the defensive capabilities of the Southern Fortress.
After flying over the southern fortress, the protagonist quickly discovered a new waterhole on the ground.
This pool covers an area of about several hundred square meters. It is long and narrow from east to west and shorter from north to south. For ants, it is a large lake.
The pool is located in a low-lying area of sparse shrubbery and is formed by the accumulation of rainwater flowing here from all directions.
There are such pools everywhere on the ground, but they are not as big as this pool. Moreover, this pool lies south of the southern fortress, on the route that the parasitic ants must pass every day.
The protagonist thought: Maybe the parasitic ants found that there was no way out, so these geniuses didn't come to attack the southern fortress!
